


Fade

by FortitudeSakura



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-27
Updated: 2018-09-27
Packaged: 2019-07-18 04:46:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16111097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FortitudeSakura/pseuds/FortitudeSakura
Summary: Sasuke's mother had told him that the world becomes a more beautiful, more colourful place when you find your soulmate.What she never told him was what it was like when you start to lose them.





	Fade

It’s when the sunset is completely drained of colour that he knows.

It’s been happening for months now, slowly the sunset looks less vibrant than he remembers. The orange becomes more muted as it fades into grey. 

Today’s sunset is almost completely grey against the streaks of pink and purple, fading into the deep blue of night.

It’s on this day he knows. His best friend had left them - his wife, children, grandchildren (including the ones they shared) and friends - and this world behind.

 

彩

 

He had first met Naruto as a four year old boy when he was catching tadpoles down at the river with his brother. His brother had already seen in colour - Izumi and Shisui having brought it out in him a few months earlier. Itachi had said it was like suddenly seeing everything for the first time again. For him, the world had burst into colour so brightly and so vibrantly that it overwhelmed him and he had to stay home from school for a few days (much to Shisui’s amusement). 

When he had first set eyes on the idiot, the world started to look a little different. Muted colours began to seep into things he saw as black, white and shades of grey. The colours became stronger the more often he saw the loud blonde child with the whisker markings. 

He asks Naruto if the same thing is happening to him and he nods. 

“How cool is it?” he says excitedly and points to his jacket - worn and beaten from all the rough and tumble activities they partake in.. “Okaa-chan says this colour is orange.” 

Orange. The colour of Naruto’s jacket is brighter than the other colours he can see. 

Naruto is special to him and they spend the summer together catching tadpoles, chasing cats and fighting bullies. By the end of the summer, Naruto’s world is in full colour when they take on the boys that are bullying Hyuga Hinata. 

  
  


彩

 

It’s springtime and the streets are lined with cherry blossom petals. He’s buying dango for his wife, who even now insists on eating sweets. He enjoys his walks to the dango shop down the road. If he were younger, the walk would have taken him five minutes. However at his advanced age, it would take him at least twenty. Not that he minded. It afforded him time to himself and regular exercise. 

The town they had retired to was quiet and simple, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. His wife had come here to open up a small medical clinic when their daughter was grown and they just never left. The townies treated him with much kindness (although he was sure that it was due to their gratitude to his wife than his ‘charming’ personality as his wife calls it). 

“Here you go!” the young shop girl chirps, before lowering her voice to a whisper. “I’ve also put some of our new cheesecake dango in there too for you to try. I think Sakura-san will really like it!” 

He chuckles and thanks the girl for thinking of his wife so fondly. 

“Of course! Sakura-san is our best customer.”

Sakura had been on a first name basis with the owners of the dango shop within the first fortnight of moving into town. She had also helped deliver the shop girl (but he can’t for the life of him remember her name and he’s sure she’s told him multiple times before).

He pays the shop girl but she refuses to take his money for the extra goodie she had slipped into the paper bag. 

“My treat!”

It happens suddenly, out of nowhere and it shocks him so much that he drops the bag of sweets.

“Sasuke-san! Are you okay?”

The cherry blossom petals have paled into the lightest grey, and he knows. He comes home to find his wife on the couch, taking a nap from which she will never wake.

 

彩

 

When he first saw Sakura, he had never seen anything as violently coloured as her. She had transferred to their high school and he noticed how much more blue the skirt of her uniform was compared to that of the other girls, how much more red the scarf was tied around the collar of her uniform. Her eyes were beautiful and he had never seen that shade of green before. She stares at him with equal curiosity and there’s a delight in her eyes as she realises he’s experiencing the same thing as she is in that classroom. 

Naruto nudges him in the ribs and he sees the idiot grinning, giving him a nod in Sakura’s direction as she sits down at her desk. Naruto and Hinata invite her to eat lunch with them and she comes over with her bento. She notices him eyeing her cherry tomatoes with jealousy and offers them to him. Before long, she’s bringing bentos for him the way Hinata brings bentos for Naruto.  

Colour flooded his world in waves but his favourites are the ones that define Sakura. She’s the softest shade of pink, much like the cherry blossoms her ironic father names her for. She’s the most exquisite jade green and when they consummate their relationship, all he sees is bright snow white. 

 

彩

 

“Papa.” he hears Sarada whisper quietly. “Are you still here?”

“Aa.” he says, his eyes closed. His world is fading into grey again and he can’t bear to open them and face the world of monochrome after so many years of knowing it in colour. He can see it in his mind’s eye all the colours that he was introduced to when he had met Sakura and Naruto. 

Their daughter visits frequently with her twin boys and daughter. He sees both him and Naruto in his twin grandsons and Sakura in his granddaughter. Raiko is the only grandchild of his who had taken on Sakura’s pink hair and green eyes and love for traditional sweets. She was like a mini-Sakura (Sakura had noted with relief that Raiko had inherited Hinata’s facial structure). She has the will of iron and a heart of fire. She has Hinata's infinite patience and Boruto's cheek. He’ll never admit this out loud but he spoils her the most out of all his grandchildren, whatever his little princess wants. 

“There’s a dango shop. Cheesecake dango. Too sweet but Raiko will like it.” he says quietly. 

“I want Ojii-chan to take me.” Raiko says, stubbornly and he smiles and opens his eyes. Raiko’s brilliant green eyes are fierce and determined. Her little lips are shaped into a pout as she puffs out her chubby cheeks. He raises his hand to poke her little forehead. 

“I’m sorry, Raiko. Maybe next time.” 

He closes his eyes and registers a sob from someone before everything fades to black.

 

彩

 

The next time he opens his eyes, his world is bright and full of colour again. He hears Naruto’s boisterous laugh and husky voice as he calls for more ramen. He smells his favourite miso soup and hopes that there’s tomatoes in it (a strange combination that Sakura constantly chides him for but will prepare for him nonetheless). 

Sakura is standing before him - her hair as pink as he remembers, eyes as green as he remembers. She breaks out into that wide smile he remembers falling in love with and her arms are wide open and waiting for him.

“ _ Okaeri,  _ Sasuke-kun. We’ve been waiting for you.”


End file.
